1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for securing and carrying children, in particular it relates to shoulder supported apparatus to transport children in a system that works with a corresponding car seat.
2. Background of the Invention
There are child carriers available, but they each have significant disadvantages. The flexible and soft shoulder “sling” suspended carriers are designed to carry the baby or infant through a strap or series of straps that secure the child closely to the front or back torso of the wearer. The strapping systems for this type of carrier make mounting and un-mounting the carrier very cumbersome, and doing so will generally jostle a sleeping child. Sling carriers do not allow for the child to be set down easily in a balanced and supported position to relieve the wearer. These close fitting carriers also may be uncomfortable for the wearer on hot or cold weather days. Suspended sling carriers provide extremely limited range of motion for the infant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,060 (Bichelor) discloses this sling-type carrier.
Shoulder suspended “Backpack” style hard frame carriers carry the infant on the back of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,414 (Fiffer) is an example of this type of carrier. The infant's legs are passed through holes in a sling and the infant's back is supported with fabric. The frame keeps the fabric supported in place and the infant is secured in a sitting position. Younger infants, who are not sitting up on their own are not compatible with this arrangement. The infant is generally loaded into the carrier prior to mounting the carrier on the wearer, however, the mounting of a loaded carrier is cumbersome and requires a level of experience and skill to be accomplished safely. Many users may find it necessary to have another adult aid in mounting a loaded carrier.
While mounted, the wearer may have extremely limited physical and visual access to the infant and is therefore unable to attend to its needs easily. Older or less robust wearers may be intimidated by the physical requirements necessary for using this type of carrier.
There are a number of car safety seats with provisions for portions that are removable to transport an infant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,350 Celestina-Krevh is an example. These include removable portions that are designed to be an integral and essential portion of the restraint of the infant during a car crash. The designs require an intrinsically rigid seat shell that houses all the restraint straps and structural elements to transfer the car's adult seatbelt system function to that of the child seat and the child seat removable (carrying) portion. The removable portion, in each current example, has significant mechanical systems and material weight for attaching to the car seat belt or the car seat. Often the handles of this “Car Seat” type carrier are designed to be outside of the range of motion of the child during a crash situation, resulting in an extremely detrimental effect on the design of the removable portion for extended use carrying. U.S. Pat. No. 7,810,682 Balensiefer discloses a design that has a portion of the safety restraint system that is removable along with a sling type carrier. The carrier portion contains undesirable weighted structure and crash rated strapping and buckles for the essential disengagement and reengagement to the car seat portion. The car seat portion is not operable without the carrier system in place.
3. Object and Advantages
Accordingly, besides the objects and advantages of the child carrier and car seat combination in my above patent, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:                (a) to provide an extremely lightweight, wearable child carrier that allows the infant to be in an un-jostled, natural, comfortable, reclined position while the wearer is wearing the loaded carrier, while the loaded carrier is set down, and while the carrier is returned to the car seat portion of the combination.        (b) to provide a wearable child carrier that is configured for safe, practical, and comfortable extended use over a variety of terrain.        (c) to provide a carrier that is low profile with kickstands that fold in and functions in conjunction with, and also entirely independently from the car seat portion.        (d) to provide a wearable child carrier that allows the wearer to shift conveniently from a shoulder mounted position, to a hand carried position, or to a floor rested position and back with little effort. Also, the carrier is intuitive in its manner of operation and is compatible with the requirements of older and weaker wearers.        (e) to provide an extended use, all terrain child carrier with access from the wearer to the child while in use.        (f) to provide a carrier with a single handle that is centrally located just over the infants torso and uses the carrier restraint straps to provide a highly maneuverable carrier when such carrier is carried by the handle.        